People have many reasons to send money from one location to another. For example, as a result of globalization, people often work at a place far away from home, possibly even in a different country. They often have to send money back to their hometowns in order to support their families or relatives.
The traditional approach of sending money is to use a wire transfer, which requires the recipient to have a bank account. Unfortunately, banking systems are not popular with the general population in many parts of the world and thus many prospective recipients do not have any bank account.
To meet this huge market need, Western Union and many other financial institutions have established branches and agents all over the world. The sender gives money to one of the branches or agents in the sender's area, the recipient will receive money from one of the branches or agents in the recipient's area after a proper identification process. Billions of dollars are moving around the world this way every year.
The cost of doing this business is very high because it is a labor intensive process. Most countries have imposed anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing, and anti-fraud obligations upon financial institutions. These financial institutions have to, for example, (1) verify and record the sender's and recipient's identification information, (2) check the sender and recipient against the “blacklists” published by various governments before completing the transaction, and (3) detect any suspicious activity and report it to the government agencies.
These branches and agents of financial institutions are dependent on manual processing to complete the transaction and to fulfill the anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing, and anti-fraud requirements imposed by the governments. Furthermore, the branches and agents of the financial institutions are not available anywhere at any time. A sender or a recipient may have to travel a long distance to complete the transaction during the business hours. In case of emergency, there is not much that the sender or the recipient can do to speed up the process.
Governments worldwide are requiring financial institutions to verify and collect at least certain text-based identification information associated with each of the parties to financial transactions in order to enforce anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing, and anti-fraud law.
There is thus a need for an automated remittance transaction process which can be automatically performed by user-accessible terminals, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and which can be made available almost anywhere in the world.
It has been proposed to conduct remote transactions through ATM terminals using a physical “convenience card” which has been purchased from a vending machine. Such a “convenience card” may then be used to open an account with a sponsoring financial institution before conducting transactions based on this card; however, the “convenience card” does not necessarily identify who the owner of the newly opened account really is; moreover, once the account has been opened, that same “convenience card” can be stolen by or otherwise come into the possession of a criminal or terrorist who can then use the card to send money all over the world to another criminal or terrorist.
With modern technologies, government authorities can store a great deal of machine-readable personal identification information within a person's official identification document such as passport, driver's license, etc. For example, the stored identification information may include biometrical information such as a fingerprint, an iris pattern, a picture, etc., that uniquely identifies a particular individual.
In addition, those same government authorities can store conventional text-based identification information associated with that same individual such as the name, date of birth, identification number, social security number and/or address within the same official identification document, in a manner that assures that the stored text-based information is properly associated with the same individual as the stored biometrical information.
In this document, the terminology “network” or “networks” generally refers to a communication network or networks, which can be wireless or wired, private or public, or a combination of them, and includes the well-known Internet.
In this document, the terminology “computer system” generally refers to either one computer or a group of computers, which may work alone or work together to accomplish the purposes of the system.
In this document, the terminology “computer network” generally refers to either one network or a group of connected networks, which may work alone or work together to accomplish the purposes of the network.
In this document, a “bank” or “financial institution” is generally referred to as a “financial service provider”, which encompasses either a bank or a non-bank where financial services are provided.
In this document, a “bank account” or “financial account” is generally referred to as an “account in a financial institution”, and encompasses accounts in either a bank or a non-bank where financial transactions are conducted by means of payment instruments such as cash, checks, credit cards, debit cards, monetary instruments, electronic fund transfers, etc.
In this document, the terminology “terminal” or “kiosk” generally refers to a piece of equipment which interfaces a user with a computer network, so that the user may interact with computer systems and other equipment connected to the computer network.
In this document, the terminology “official identification document” generally refers to a passport, a driver's license, an identity card, a certificate of legal status, and other official documents and information bearing instruments that identify a designated individual by certain verifiable characteristics, that are issued or certified by a consulate, embassy, government agency, or other governmental authority, and that are protected against unauthorized copying or alteration by the responsible government. In particular, such “official identification documents” can be formed from various materials and can embed the identification information in various formats, including printed on paper, embossed on a plastic card, written on a magnetic medium, programmed into an electronic device, stored in a memory chip, and combinations thereof. The “identification information” may include, but is not necessarily limited to, names, numbers, signatures, addresses, passwords, personal identification numbers, photographs, fingerprints, iris scans, physical descriptions, and other biometric information.